Find a Heating Engineer you can trust in Buckhurst Hill.

If your boiler is leaking, there are some checks that you can do yourself. However, you should never attempt to repair your boiler yourself – only a Gas Safe-registered engineer should conduct repairs.

There are 3 main reasons why your boiler might be leaking: there’s a pressure valve fault, a temperature valve leak or corrosion in the system. An engineer will be able to spot the problem quickly, but in the meantime there are a few things you can do:

Check the pipe fittings

If your boiler is leaking water around the pipe fittings, it could be an installation fault and you should get in touch with the engineer that fitted it. You can check the pipe fittings by drying the area then waiting to see if the water appears again. If it does, you may be able to do a ¼ turn of the pipe to stop it. However, you should still call the engineer that installed it to ask them to check the PTFE tape on the inside.

Inspect the seals

Over time, the rubber seals on a boiler can start to perish, so if you have an old boiler this could be the source of your leak. If you have a new boiler, it could be caused by your boiler running over pressure.

Heat exchanger corrosion

Unfortunately, if a boiler engineer discovers that the boiler is leaking water from the heat exchanger, this is the end of the road for your system. The heat exchanger is the most expensive part of your boiler, so it makes more financial sense to replace your boiler with a newer, more efficient model rather than try to replace it.

Modern oil boilers do not require a lot of maintenance. OFTEC recommends that oil boilers are serviced and inspected every year. This keeps them running as efficiently as possible and will ensure any issues with your boiler are identified before they cause bigger problems. This servicing is also vital because of the increased risk of carbon monoxide leaking from a poorly maintained boiler.

How Much Is A New Oil Boiler?

An oil boiler is a very useful tool for providing both central heating and domestic hot water to a property by burning oil. As a result, they’re simply one of the most common alternative heating methods used in homes throughout the UK. If you’re not connected to the mains gas network, then it’s a no brainer to depend on another fuel for central heating purposes - oil. Therefore, if you’re looking to get a new oil boiler, you’d need to identify the size and price as there are a plethora of models to select from - all coming in a large array of sizes and prices. We’ve put together some important details about the prices to give you a good insight on the amount you’d have to incur to procure a new oil boiler. Let’s have a look!

Generally, gas boilers are less expensive when compared to the oil boilers. You can get a wide range of gas boilers from a starting price of £500 to £600, meanwhile you’d rarely find an oil boiler less than £1000 in the market.

The lowest priced oil boilers are typically priced starting from around £1000, and the best in class oil boilers normally costs more than £3000.

The rule is, the most expensive oil boiler is typically the largest one. So to have an idea, the bigger it is, the more money you’d have to spend. Oil boiler’s size is measured in kilowatts (kw), which showcases its power. To determine the type of oil boiler that best suits your home, the most significant factor would be the size as a bigger home will require a bigger oil boiler. You have an option to choose between the combi, conventional and the system models of oil boiler.

A boiler is simply the most important part of a central heating system as it generates the heat that warms up the home or property. Basically, the appliance or small furnace makes use of gas, LPG or oil in order to fuel its operation. However in the UK, most boilers are usually fuelled by natural gas which is supplied automatically from the national gas grid. And depending on how it operates, there are various types of boilers.

Typically, a gas central heating boiler will have multiple pipes entering from underneath. While one pipe supplies the boiler with gas from the mains gas supply, another pipe allows cold water to enter the boiler to be heated, the last pipe then enables hot water to exit the boiler so it can be distributed around the home.

✓ There are fuel jets and heat exchangers inside the boiler. When the heating is turned on, a valve is opened to allow the mains supply gas to enter a sealed combustion chamber in the boiler. There are multiple little valves which permit the entry of the gas before being ignited by an electric ignition switch. These jets heat a metal component in the boiler known as a heat exchanger which works to transfer the heat to the cold water pipe and heat up the water.

✓ Once the water has been heated to the target temperature, it’s then pumped through a circuit of pipe which runs around your home by an electric pump.

✓ The heated water enter each radiator, is then transmitted via a closed loop and radiates heat into each room.

✓ Once done travelling through all radiators, the water then returns to the boiler at which it must have been cooled. Therefore, the boiler will have to reheat following the same process before circulating. The water can only be drained by a professional Gas Safe engineer

Does Home Insurance Cover Boiler Repairs?

When winter comes, your boiler is most likely to be one of the most used appliances in your home. It keeps operating for several hours to ensure your house remains warm and conducive and then during those cold evenings, it supplies the much needed hot water to guarantee a restive night. But with so much usage and many moving parts, you’d naturally expect your boiler to breakdown at some point especially if it’s 7 years old or above. So what’s the next line of action when it happens, leaving your radiators off and water cold? With the likely high boiler repair cost, it’s only logical to consider whether your boiler repairs is covered by your home insurance.

In almost all situations, the standard home insurance will not provide coverage for the cost of repairing or replacing a broken boiler. Being fully aware that boiler breakdowns are mostly caused by a lack or not so regular maintenance practices or servicing, most home insurance providers will exclude it from this from their offerings. In fact, a home insurance is more likely to provide coverage for the damage that has happened as a result of a broken appliance. For instance, the damage caused as a result of gas, oil or water leaking from a boiler are more likely to be paid for by the home insurance providers, but they’ll not pay for the repair or replacement of the broken boiler itself.

If you need our home insurance to cover your boiler repair, then you might just be able to get an extra insurance cover from your provider that includes a broken boiler repair. You can consult them to determine if this is possible as well as the cost to be paid per month. This will normally cost about £5 to £10 per month, but it gives you a peace of mind knowing you’re covered if your boiler happens to breakdown.

Ad hoc visits from your engineer to fix small issues with your heating system may actually seem cheaper and a lot more affordable, however when a boiler is ripe enough for a change these small issues are always never ending. Over some period of time, these small issues will inevitably get worse and the idea of “mend and make do will be an absolutely false economy. The best course of action in this sort of event is to find a replacement boiler to install as soon as possible. In this article, we’re going to give you some hints that’ll show you when your boiler needs to be replaced. Now let’s take a look!

✓ Insufficient hot water. Here, you’ll have to check the size of your hot water cylinder. It’s crucial to make sure that your boiler is rightly sized to power your heating as well as hot water circuit in line with your demands. You should always seek the advice of a heating expert who can recommend whether to fix or replace the boiler.

✓ Strange noises. It’s normal for components of the boiler to become worn or damaged over time. Replacing the particular component that’s causing the knocking or rattling may seem cost effective at first but more often than not, the noises usually signal a bigger issue which is likely to build up over time. Hence, it’ll be a lot more logical to replace the boiler itself.

✓ Regular repair of your boiler. It’s essential to have your heating system serviced by a Gas Safe engineer on an annual basis. However, when you have to call them more often than once a year for your yearly maintenance, it may be a wise decision to consider getting a replacement.

✓ Other events whereby you may need a new boiler includes when you can’t get the right temperature in your room, when the radiators don’t heat up as they should, when your boiler leaks and if your boiler still has a pilot light.

Biomass boilers do require some maintenance. Many manufacturers recommend servicing twice a year, although this is often included in the installation cost. Many systems have automatic fuel loading that removes the need to manually load fuel. You will need to remove the ash from the boiler, but this is as easy as emptying a vacuum cleaner.

When your boiler is being replaced you won’t have hot water or central heating. If you don’t mind this you can stay in your home, and use portable electric heaters if needed. Most installers undertake a power flush before installing a new boiler now and this can cause muck and debris from the pipework, so you may wish to get out of the way while this is happening!